IDEOLOGY: Mr Masagos Zulkifli spoke on self-radicalisation. -- BH FILE PHOTO

Sometimes you wonder why people are vulnerable to radical but dubious doctrine.

This phenomenon reminds me of a poignant scene from the animation movie Ratatouille.

In the scene, Remy, a rat who was relentlessly pursuing his dream to become someone different, to be a chef in the world of man, was taken by his father, Django, to a horrifying scene of rats hung in traps at a shop window.

As he looked in shock at the dead rats, his father said with great conviction: 'The world we live in belongs to the enemy; we must live carefully. We look out for our own kind, Remy. When all is said and done, we're all we've got.'

How similar this is to the world view presented by radical ideologists on the Internet.

Horrifying and pitiful pictures of Muslims who are innocent bystanders but become victims in wars and conflicts in Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq, freely available on the Internet, seem persuasive evidence of the fate of Muslims.

It's certainly persuasive to many young Muslims who believe that their world is the oppressed world which can be liberated if, and only if, they care for each other and no other and destroy every other.

In the movie, however, Remy chose to see things differently, even as he witnessed his kind hamstrung in the shop window.

Here's how the scene ended:

REMY: (Defiantly) No. Dad, I don't believe it. You're telling me that the future is - can only be - more of this?

DJANGO: This is the way things are; you can't change nature.

REMY: Change is nature, Dad. The part that we can influence. And it starts when we decide.

DJANGO: (Remy turns to leave) Where are you going?

REMY: With luck, forward.'